It's bad when programs like this replace actual teaching. Teaching to pass a test is not teaching knowledge or skills

Hopefully we will stop teaching to the test and start teaching kids critical thinking, problem solving.

Not really feeling this is accurate. I have been in education for 15 years. Reading and knowledge acquisition is way more complicated then this. But long story short, you need to learn how to read and analyze text so that you can build knowledge.

When the Obstructionist republicans force universal standard testing upon teachers to teach to test standards instead of teaching needed subjects, was the outright ruin of the American Education system!

The company that printed the vast majority of Standard tests was owned by one of the Brothers of Bush presidential family in San Antonio, Texas in 2005 they moved the printing operation to Neuvo Laredo, Mexico displacing over 50 American workers!

Knowlege is nothing without the tools to apply them. What you call technique is really skills. Intellectual content is nothing without the ability to properly evaluate what you see, hear, or read.

Thats why we have Trump followers today. Somewhere along the line they failed to acquire the tools necessary to evaluate the information they were taking in.

Whats missing in elementary school (and it continues throughout all of secondary education) is intellectual disciple. Complex rational thinking is not an innate skill that one is born with (notice I said complex). It is learned and develped by practice.

Schools are no longer making their students be accountable for being intellectually disciplined. We accept sloppy work that fails to meet the mininmum skills standards. We allow inferior thought processes, inferior demonstrations of skill development, and inferior products to be handed in.

However, before you say, "well its the educational systems fault, the schools fault, the teachets fault.", realize teachers and schools are just responding to the level of support they recieve from parents.

Teachers and schools would love to ibcrease the intellectual demand and rigor of the work. But over the last 30 years parents have abandoned education. Now teachers are reprimanded for making the wook "too hard".

When Adminstrators bring this charge against a teacher its usually because of parental pressure. They want little Johnny to get good grades, but Johnny refuses to do the work that is sent home. Instead he goes in his room plays video games. The parents are inept at getting him to cooperate and do his homework, so they give up. Its easier to complain to the Principal or School Board that the teacher expects too much from their kids.

Complex thought processes snd problem solving is far more important in the long run than content. If I have the skills developed for critical thinking, I can take in sny snd all content and be fairly sure that I can effectively evaluate, understand and appropritely question the material.

"Give me a fish today and I eat today, but teach me to fish and I provide for all days going forward"

Give me a fact today and I can repeat it back without understanding its significance, but teach me to think and I can solve the problems that I face going forward.

I had a incredible stroke of luck that improved my whole life. Due to parents issue, I got bounced from state to state and school to school and fell badly behind. In the third grade my school got some federal money to hire reading specialists. I soon caught up but instead of sending me back to regular classes they kept me as a guinea pig to see what I could do. By sixth grade I was reading 1100 words per minute and devouring several books a week.